


March

by Avonya



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Band, Gen, Inspired by the ‘you quit marching band discussion’, Marching Band, POV Outsider, POV trombone player named Ayla, and a conversation I had with my friends about what instrument Peter would play, trombone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 03:30:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17911175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avonya/pseuds/Avonya
Summary: Sure, now that Ayla’s thinking about it, there are plenty of reasons for Peter Parker to be Spider-Man. But the biggest one? He would never quit band.(Ayla, Peter’s stand partner from when he was still in marching band, investigates.)





	March

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, this is based on a conversation with my friends about what instrument Peter would play during a rewatch of homecoming. Title is from Youngblood Brass Band’s song ‘March’, and if you like brass band stuff, you should check them out!

Alya knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Mostly. She needed to gather a little more data to be sure, be she knew. Mostly. 

Rewind, rewind. The evidence?

She would need to go back all the way to freshman year to explain it. And since one, ugh, freshmen, and two, she would never tell anyone ever, she hasn’t really completely got her reasons down. 

But if she  _ was  _ going to tell anyone, she’d tell them that Peter Parker loved trombone too much to ever quit. That was her big reason. 

Ayla and Peter had been stand partners ever since Ryan Steele tried dealing weed to an on-duty police officer and got expelled. Peter became third chair, Ayla became fourth. And that was nice! Peter was a way better stand partner than Max because Peter was nice and Peter mostly remembered to bring his music and was nice about asking to borrow hers when he forgot. He never remember a pencil, but that was fine, because Ayla always brought two, just in case her first broke. 

Peter was great in regular band, but he was terrible at marching. His feet always got mixed up, and he was really small. Well. Even as a sophomore Peter is small, he just has more muscles. Once, in one of the first games of freshman year, he passed out halfway through the halftime show, and Ayla had to step on him. But then they lost like 6-56, and that took some of the pressure of of Peter. He was real nice about Ayla stepping on him, though. All he said was he was glad his trombone didn’t get hurt. He loved his trombone.

Then one day freshman year his uncle died, and he was out for a few days. Ayla tried finding him, to tell him that she was sorry for his loss. Alya knew the crime statistics, and planned on telling Peter it was a shame that his uncle was one of those numbers, when she found him crying in a practice room. 

Her speech flew out the window (metaphorically, of course, since there are no windows in practice rooms). All she could say was, “Sorry, Peter. Did you know that your trombone’s dented?”

Because it was! The slide was dented up where you have to hold it, and freshmen-Ayla didn’t know what to think about that. She didn’t know how it would have even happened. Sophomore-Ayla knew that it was because Peter is Spider-Man and Spider-Man has super strength. 

That made Peter startle, and cry more. Ayla remembered that his trombone was a hand-me-down from his uncle and felt even worse. She didn’t know what to say, and she didn’t want to leave him alone, so she just sat there until he started crying a little less. When she asked him if he wanted to go over the music they sight read while he was out he said yes, and Ayla didn’t say anything about how choked his sound was. 

So Peter stayed in band even when his uncle had died, and one day he just quits because of the ‘Stark Internship’? Please. 

Ayla was heartbroken. True, she got to move up to third chair, which was pretty cool, but then she had to have fucking Max as a stand partner again, which wasn’t. She thought she got to leave him behind in freshman year. 

And when she confronted Peter about it, he just said the Stark Internship kept him too busy to be in band! The nerve. 

So Ayla did some research, and it turned out that Stark Industries doesn’t even have teen internships. So she watched Peter even more carefully. She would list her following findings as secondary evidence to Peter being Spider-Man. 

Peter watched a lot of Spider-Man videos in class. Peter only ever forgot his homework after Spider-Man did something big. Peter made something mysterious during chemistry. Peter was suddenly really good in gym, which made Ayla angry. Because if he’s suddenly strong and graceful, he should join marching band again!

And then things stacked up. Peter and Spider-Man were both in DC at the same time, Peter wasn’t in the elevator when Spider-Man saved the decathlon team. Peter lost the Stark Internship at the same time that Spider-Man disappeared. Peter blew off Liz at homecoming and then Spider-Man fought a bad guy that turned out to be Liz’s dad. 

Ayla had good evidence that Peter was, in fact, Spider-Man. She just wanted to test it. Because if Peter was Spider-Man, then she’d be a little nicer about trying to get him to rejoin marching band. 

 

Her wanting to test it brought her to where she is now: standing at the top of the stairs, Peter at her side. They were walking to Spanish together, as they did. Ayla made her plan the night before. She would walk with Peter, like normal, ‘trip’ and fall down, and Peter, being Spider-Man, would catch her. Because the freshman-Peter would never have been able to catch her. He couldn’t even catch himself. 

Except she had gone over the statistics for injuries resulting in falls down stairs, and all she could think about was breaking her hip. And then she couldn’t march. 

Good thing it was pep-band season, she thought grimly. 

“Ayla?” Peter asks, nervously. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she says, deciding that this plan is dumb as shit. Maybe Peter won’t catch her because he doesn’t want to blow his cover. Maybe Peter won’t catch her because he actually isn’t Spider-Man, he just hated trombone, and also hates her, which is another reason for not catching her. 

“Yeah,” she says again, “I just forgot something.”

And she’s about to keep walking when someone slams into her. 

And she falls anyway. 

In the seconds as she falls, she feels her stomach drop. She feels like throwing up. She’s going to break her hip and also her back and never be able to march again and it won’t even be of her own volition. 

And then Ayla’s caught. There’s Peter, looking all heroic, with both hands around her forearm. Not holding on to the railing, she notices wildly. Sticky feet. 

“Ayla, holy shit!” He says. 

With his help, she staggers back to her feet. 

“Oh my god,” she says. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem,” Peter says, letting her go and shuffling his feet. “We better get to Spanish, right?”

“Right.”

So Ayla knows Peter’s Spider-Man. Nothing really changes, except she keeps a closer eye on what Spider-Man’s doing. When she knows Peter’s going to be out the next day, after crazy battles or house fires, she brings her nice paper so she can take nice notes. 

And she eases up on trying to make him rejoin band. Just a little. 

 

(One day, in Spanish, Peter asks if Ayla would ever want to practice together. She grins, tells him sure. The next day they rent a practice room during lunch and Ayla gets to watch him play his dented, hand-me-down trombone again. He’s pretty good. 

He should march again, Ayla thinks. But she doesn’t say anything because it would suck if he joined again and then had to run off to fight crime, leaving them with no first trombone.) 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote and posted this on my phone so if something’s wrong, tell me and I can try to fix it. Thanks!


End file.
